September 14, 2016

Parental Moment

During dinner I teach my children to never say hate:“It is a strong word and emotion like love,
so be careful when you use it. It carries a lot of
weight. Do you really hate tomatoes or
do you simply dislike it? Do you hate your sister
or dislike her for destroying your Lego creation?
Be careful with your words.”

Later the news correspondent
contradicts my parental moment
when “wall,” “rapist,” “murder,” “drug dealers”
are looped for the sake of ratings
and my sons and daughter
gaze at one another and me:

“What word fits this feeling?”

Luivette Resto, a mother, teacher, poet, and Wonder Woman fanatic, was born in Aguas Buenas, Puerto Rico but proudly raised in the Bronx. Her two books of poetry Unfinished Portrait and Ascension have been published Tia Chucha Press. She is a CantoMundo fellow and has served as a contributing poetry editor for Kweli Journal. Some of her latest work can be read on Entropy Magazine, Coiled Serpent,Altadena Anthology 2015 & 2016, and a forthcoming anthology of Afro-Latino poetry published by Arte Público Press. Currently, she lives in the Los Angeles area with her three children.